The present invention relates to laboratory animal cages and, more specifically, to cages in which the movement of the animal in the cage may be recorded for an indefinite length of time.
Laboratory animals, such as rats, are frequently subjected to various stimuli to determine what effect such stimuli has on the animals and, consequently, to estimate what effect such stimuli might have on human beings. The types of stimuli vary greatly and include, amongst many others, new drugs and various environments. The effect of any particular stimulus may be monitored in several ways. One technique for determining the effect of a stimulus on a laboratory animal is observing the movement of the animal within a cage. The stimulus may alter one or more of the characteristics of the animal, such as its preferred location within the cage, frequency of movement or speed of movement. Thus, it is desirable to record the motion of the animal within the cage as a function of time. During working hours, attendants in the laboratory could visually observe the activity of the animals. However, it is important to make a permanent record of the activity continuously over long time durations, such as a week or even longer. Several possible recording devices are known, such as a movie camera. But, to the knowledge of the inventors none is known which can record the movement of laboratory animals in an economical, efficient manner.